Reader Caroline Duble, a student at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., articulated better than I can why we do our daily love jones here at ColorLines. Caroline sent in a famous quote from historian Howard Zinn, whose storied work blazed trails that we’re trying to follow. First, here’s the quote:

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacri?ce, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magni?cently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an in?nite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in de?ance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Zinn’s perspective is a terribly important one for these tough times. Caroline explained that one of her professors sent her the quote after she read an illuminating but deeply depressing study of war-making and profiteering. In sharing it with us, she offered her great summation of why we close each day by celebrating love:

I don’t think it is possible to change anything without being able to see the great capacity that we have to feel, to be emotional, and to empathize. It’s time we start from the bottom up and create a groundwork for mass social change by sharing our stories and focusing on those fantastic moments in history that Zinn is talking about. We have to be positive, while simultaneously educating each other about the negative, if anything will ever be done. Please keep celebrating love.

Here, here. So, dear readers, join us! We welcome your ideas for posts. Send suggestions to submissions@colorlines.com, and be sure to put Celebrate Love in the subject line. You can send links to videos, graphics, photos, quotes, whatever. Or just chime in to the comments below and we’ll find you. Be sure to let us know you’ve got the rights to share any media you send.

Check out all of our Celebrate Love posts here.